Out of the corner of ou's eye Flaiđ saw the blurred mass of them as they gathered to discuss what might be the matter with ou, ou's keen hearing picking up their whispered voices but not the words they spoke.
At last one sylphid broke away from the group and flew toward ou, hovering in the air in front of ou's face.
"Hello." ou said softly, seeing a sylphid up close for the first time. She was small, yet tall for her frame. Her skin was radiant, reflecting light in many colours. Her wings, though blurred in movement, appeared translucent and there were four of them, two on each side of her body. Her face was pixieish, thin, yet heart-shaped, her chin pointed, her nose upturned, and her sapphire eyes wide set. Her hair was light and tinged the colour of moss and as fine as a spider's web.
She hovered in the air not two hands-breadths away from ou's face, her eyes studying ou's intensely.
"My name is Flaiđ." ou said and she tittered. Then she raised her chin and howled the way a mouse might howl trying to imitate a wolf. So she knew what ou's name meant in the old tongue.
"Yes, you're very clever and very funny." ou said and smiled, "But what is your name?"
The sylphid watched Flaiđ's eyes for half a moment, then flew high around ou in an arc and hovered next to ou's right ear. Her wings beating the air and fluttering ou's fur.
"Nýddllawœn." she whispered in ou's ear, then fluttered away to hover in front of ou's face once more.
"Nýddllawœn." Flaiđ repeated her name softly, then smiled - it too was from the old tongue of this land.
"Merry-wings." Flaiđ said, translating it.
Nýddllawœn fluttered and performed a loop in front of Flaiđ, letting loose her high-pitched wolf howl in three ululations of "Wooo-wooo-wooo!" and when she resumed her station in front of Flaiđ, the rest of the sylphid took up the howl as well.
Flaiđ waited until they settled, then slowly raised ou's hand as not to frighten her and braced it against ou's knee, palm downward,
"I have a task for you and your sisters, Nýddllawœn." ou said, "How would you like to torment some very bad men who are destroying your forest?"
Nýddllawœn slowed her fluttering and sat down on the back of Flaiđ's hand, tucking her wings behind her, gazing at him and listening.
"I'd like it if they never slept through the night." Flaiđ began to tell her ou's plan, and as ou did, dozens of other sylphids drew close around them, filling the air with their soft fluttering wings.
"Wolf & Moon'
Aaron D McClelland
Penticton, BC
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